


103.9

by taylor_tut



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, College, College AU, Coughing, Delirium, Fever, High fever, Pneumonia, Sick Character, Sick Fic, Sickness, delirious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 17:16:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11384772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taylor_tut/pseuds/taylor_tut
Summary: In which Keith is confronted with a delirious, sick Lance who just finished his finals.





	103.9

Keith was just about to drift off for a mid-afternoon nap in his dorm room when he heard a dull thump hit the door.

Lance had left that morning to take his last finals, and Keith assumed he was probably pretty exhausted. He’d been cramming for the past two weeks, battling a cold for the past week, and awake for the past two days. While he, Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro had tried to tell him to get some rest, he fought them on it, saying that he didn’t have a choice, and in a way, he was right. None of his professors nor his boss would go easy on him just because he had a lot of tests. College could be a bitch sometimes.

So Keith was content to let his eyes drift shut once more until he heard the jingle of keys hitting and missing the lock several times before hitting the ground, followed by a quiet, frustrated curse. Keith irritably stood to let Lance into the room and yelped when his roommate slumped bonelessly into his arms as soon as he opened the door.

“Jesus, Lance; did you fall asleep standing up?” he cried. Lance took on a bit more of his own weight, pulling away from Keith a fractional amount.

“Sorry,” he muttered, “just tired.”

“It’s okay,” Keith reassured. “You don’t look very good. You finished your finals?” Lance nodded, but his face showed anything but the relief that Keith had expected. Instead, his mouth contorted into a dangerous frown, and his eyes filled with tears. “Woah, hey, what’s wrong?”

“I failed,” Lance mumbled.

“Come on, you always think you failed, and you always do just fine. I’m sure this time’s no different.”

Lance shook his head vehemently and attempted to take a step forward into the room, but was stopped by his legs giving out a bit, buckling at the knee and sending him toppling toward Keith once more.

“Hey, hey,” Keith tried to soothe, “just. You’ll calm down after you take a nap. You just need some sleep.”

Lance shook his head again, muttering something that sounded alarmingly like another tearful “I failed,” but Keith couldn’t pay attention to that right now–not when Lance leaned away from him and started to cough.

He’d been coughing for the past week, but this–this was different. Keith could feel the wetness of his lungs manifesting as a rattling shake as he held onto the clearly ill boy to make sure he didn’t topple over. Lance was shivering, too, he could tell now that he held him closer. The coughing wouldn’t stop, and it was apparently loud enough to alert his neighbor. Stupid, thin walls.

“Holy crap, who has the plague?” Pidge asked. Hunk was peering over her shoulder–they’d been together studying for their engineering final for the past few days.

“Help,” Keith pleaded, and Pidge’s facial expression dropped from teasing to serious as she and Hunk rushed toward the two roommates.

Lance had stopped coughing, but his breathing was ragged and he didn’t pull away from Keith Pidge reached up and brushed his bangs away to feel his forehead and grimaced.

“He’s burning up,” she informed. “This isn’t just a cold anymore. He’s got to have bronchitis or pneumonia or something.”

“Should we call an ambulance?” Keith worried. He had no idea what to do with a sick person.

“No,” Lance argued.

“You can’t just say no because you don’t want to go,” Hunk pointed out. “You might need to go to the hospital.”

“I’m going to grab a thermometer,” Pidge offered.

“Get Shiro, too,” Keith added. She nodded and went off in search of their RA and some medical supplies.

“I don’t need a hospital,” Lance continued to fight.

“Well, can you walk to health services?” Keith asked. Lance paled a shade but nodded.

“Later,” he moaned, “M'tired.”

As Hunk and Keith settled Lance into Keith’s bed, not wanting to even try to wrestle him up the ladder of his lofted one, and by the time they finished that task, Pidge had returned with Shiro.

“If his temperature is over 104, I’ll call an ambulance,” Shiro reassured an anxious Keith as Pidge pressed the button on the thermometer and forced Lance to keep it in his mouth despite his thrashing. When it beeped three seconds later, she laughed bitterly.

“103.9; you lucky asshole,” she rolled her eyes.

“Okay. We’ll give him fever reducers and see if that helps, and we’ll get him to health services when he’s a little more coherent.”

“I’ve gotta study,” Lance protested, weakly trying to get out of bed while Keith pushed his shoulders back down.

“No, Lance; you already finished, remember? It’s okay.”

Lance’s eyes welled with tears once more as he choked out a few rough, deep coughs. “Did I fail them?”

“No, buddy,” Hunk promised, “you did fine. Just focus on resting, okay?”

Lance shook his head in protest, but his body wanted to obey anyway, and his eyes began to slip closed.

“Wait,” Shiro interrupted, slipping two pills into Lance’s hand, “take these first.” Lance leaned against Hunk to sit up and chased the pills with the water Shiro offered, then slumped back against Hunk again, seemingly exhausted.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t just call an ambulance?” Keith worried. “103.9 is practically 104.”

“Give him an hour. If he gets worse, we’ll call, but we’ll check his fever in an hour. It’s probably pneumonia, but he’s young and healthy. It’s scary, but he’s not going to die. He just needs some antibiotics. Student health services will be able to handle it.” Keith nodded.

He was still worried, but he trusted Shiro. He’d handle it.


End file.
